Our thoughts on the city’s £82m railway station masterplan, set to transform the station’s look and capacity in time for 2021.

Over the past 5 years, Coventry railway station has been the fastest growing station outside London and is now set to benefit from an ambitious redevelopment scheme.

The current Grade II listed station building is dated and tired, with limited passenger facilities and extremely poor integration with other forms of transport.

The programme aims to increase passenger capacity to cope with future growth and provide an attractive gateway into the city, all in time for 2021 when the city will serve its year as City of Culture.

The New Station

The new station building will sit adjacent to the existing 1962 Grade II listed station building and provide a new concourse and retail facilities along with new platform access.

Sitting directly above the new station building will be a 644 space multi-storey car park. A new footbridge will provide lift and stepped access to all platforms from the new station building.

A bus interchange is also planned to the west of the new station building. The bus interchange will provide an enclosed concourse serving six stands, along with ticketing and information facilities.

All in all, the new station will include:

A second footbridge connecting all four platforms and extended platform canopies

A second station entrance building, facing outwards onto Warwick Road and providing step-free access to platforms

A 633 space multi-storey car park

A bus interchange connected directly to the station building via a new access tunnel under Warwick Road

A new bay platform (this means set in off the main line so it does not impede direct London trains) to enable two trains per hour between Coventry and Nuneaton.

Our Thoughts

While we welcome any redevelopments to the city’s railway station considering its outdated state, red is certainly an interesting choice of colour for the facade. We would’ve preferred to see a more natural stone or concrete design that pays homage to the city’s original 1962 station.

That being said, a modern concourse building with increased parking facilities will for sure be an improvement on the original station, no matter the colour.

We’re happy to hear that the new concourse will contain dedicated retail space, something which the original station massively lacks, especially in comparison to a station like Birmingham New Street. While the original station building did recently open a new WH Smith to serve passengers and a Starbucks is accessible from the platforms, there’s certainly room for improvement.

The new bus station will not only benefit those that use the public transport, but drivers too since the space north of the station will no longer be cluttered by buses.

We’re just hoping the new station has a vast, dedicated taxi rank because at present, the taxi situation around the station can often get a little out of hand.